Yuzuki Tokai
Yuzuki Tokai is a quiet and introverted girl, currently studying Psychology at the University of Mitakihara. She was the class representative of her classes all the way through Mitakihara High. She currently shares a dorm room with her childhood friend Emiri Kanashimi. Attributes Appearance Yuzuki has dark black hair and aqua-colored eyes shielded by a pair of glasses. Due to beginning training four years ago, she is stronger and more heavily muscled than most modern girls, despite a somewhat-successful effort over the past four years to avoid becoming a so-called 'muscle woman.' She bears near her left hip a large blotchy scar from her first attempt at fighting a witch at the age of sixteen. She tends to prefer neat and formal clothing, button-down shirts and uniform-style skirts being her standbys. Personality Though serious and seemingly strict within her role as the class representative, she cares quite a lot about the people around her, even relatively new acquaintances. Despite this, she is not very social. Yuzuki tends to regret this attribute in herself, as it keeps her from having as many friends as she might like. She does, however, greatly cherish her childhood friend Emiri. Yuzuki has a strong distaste for lying, and tries to avoid it whenever possible. She furthermore prefers to trust people at their word, sometimes even when there is reason enough to question their account. She has shown herself to be greatly disturbed by violence, injury, and death, becoming physically ill at the death of even Anisa, whom she despised. In her spare time, she enjoys video games, including dating sims, to the frequent amusement of others. She maintains an interest in swordplay, originally fostered out of necessity in her early Puella days. Yuzuki makes a point of only liking swordsmanship "platonically," more interested in the technique and sportsmanship of it rather than its utility in combat. Her "other half," Ikana Shitomi, seems often designed to be the polar opposite of Yuzuki. Ikana is brash, frequently abrasive, and outgoing, despite that she has had little opportunity to speak with others due to a deliberate effort on Yuzuki's part to keep this "offensive" side of herself hidden. Her Puella Magi duties call on her stronger characteristics much more often. Yuzuki is often rather weak-willed about the business of fighting witches, delaying Witch hunts many times and backing out entirely on more than one occasion. She almost never engages a Witch without some degree of reluctance. History Act I Introduction At the time of Yuzuki's introduction, she lives alone with her father in an apartment, following her parents' divorce six months prior. On the whole, her existence is unremarkable, barring the unfortunate death of one of her friends, Toi Kanashimi, a year before. She maintains and finds solace, however, in the friendship of Toi's sister, Emiri. Rinju Arc Her ordinary and peaceful life is turned suddenly upside-down by the entrance of the Rinju family, after she becomes involved mediating a fight between Alice and Shou. She subsequently stumbles across Esther, shortly after her revival, a chance event that sets her on the path to becoming a Puella Magi. Offering Esther momentary lodging in her apartment, she takes Alice there as well and reunites the sisters after Esther's "death." Though presented with these somewhat suspicious circumstances, she does not question Esther's story. She again offers her hospitality when the two sisters are thrown out of their house by their father, but they instead stay at Emiri's house, as they can work at the flower shop to earn their keep there. Witches' Awakening Arc She learns the unfortunate truth some time later, after being attacked by the same witch who killed Esther, Claudia. This and an attack on her childhood friend Emiri cause her to become more and more concerned for the safety of her friends, and despite all warnings to the contrary, she makes a contract with Kyubey. She finds out very shortly thereafter, at the inaugural meeting of In Euphoria Clad, about the fate all magical girls are beholden to. She opts to keep her magical girl status a secret in light of these revelations, as she does not wish to confront these issues. In response to this desire, her Puella form includes a mask and hood, and she has taken the false name 'Ikana' when transformed. Anisa Arc Following Anisa's kidnapping of Alice, she tracks her down to Anisa's home and breaks in to rescue Alice. Anisa is conspicuously absent throughout the raid. Upon meeting Alice, she does not disclose her identity, again using the alias 'Ikana.' Though successful, the day proves to be rather stressful for her, and she complains of feeling ill. Later, a passing comment Anisa makes to Shou reveals her secret, much to her chagrin. Shou issues her an ultimatum on the school roof: tell the rest of the IEC about her status, or he will. She makes some good on her promise, telling Emiri of her contract on their trip to the Kamitsuki Dojo. When the trip devolves into chaos upon Anisa's attack and Shou's death, she contributes to fighting her off and restraining her. Though she was not especially close to Shou, she was saddened greatly by his death, and held a impromptu funeral service at Cherry Blossom Cemetery in his (and Claudia's) honor. Yuzuki begins to be troubled by a voice in her head, which has identified itself as Ikana Shitomi, the name Yuzuki thought was only an alias of her invention. Ikana's influence escalated into a full-on second personality during Anisa's attack, able to 'take control' and speak for herself. A week after Shou's death on the mountains, Walpurgis Night arrives in Mitakihara, and Yuzuki sets out separately from the others toward the cliff where Anisa was holding Alice. She arrives the latest, having gotten caught in a house collapse with a little girl along the way. Only appearing at the tail end of the confrontation with Anisa, she is dumbfounded to learn that the black Angel had also been the reason for Toi's death a year prior. She takes the wounded Alice to the hospital, promising reluctantly to meet with Hiroko later to combat Walpurgis directly. Along with one of the Puella Magi specters summoned by Hiroko, Nani Masamune, she devises a means of launching a Puella-filled magic 'bomb' at Walpurgis, ultimately destroying the witch. She takes a rather spectacular fall following the detonation, which puts her in the hospital with a multitude of broken bones and internal trauma. Act II Four years later, Yuzuki is ready to enter the University of Mitakihara, having evidently recovered from her injuries of four years ago. She moves into Itokai Dorm, sharing a room with Emiri. This causes her some anxiety, as it means she will no longer be able to hide Ikana from her, as Ikana's activity has risen significantly over the years. Yuzuki meets Azuki Suminori after a routine Witch hunt, and makes it something of a goal of hers to recruit the withdrawn Puella for the benefit of all of the IEC. She and Emiri hold a housewarming party at their apartment shortly after moving in, with the vast majority of the cast in attendance. Yuzuki is thoroughly floored to discover a love letter (from Emiri, not entirely unbeknownst to Yuzuki) in her mailbox. She meets Emiri behind their old high school, and, despite some misgivings, tentatively accepts Emiri's confession. The typical elements of a romantic relationship remain nerve-wracking for her. Ikana reveals to Emiri shortly afterward that she is part of a long-running plan to make Yuzuki into a person more fit to fulfill the wish of 'protecting everyone,' as Yuzuki's personality is considered too weak and cowardly to get the job done. In time, Ikana speculates, she will replace Yuzuki as the dominant personality. She makes a point, however, that this is not her decision (or Yuzuki's), merely the power of Yuzuki's wish at work. After she and Alice discover some mementos of Esther's, Yuzuki chooses to accompany Alice on the trip to Tokyo, in order to discover more about the Rinju family from the records at the National Archives. Yuzuki's first direct interaction with her nemesis (unbeknownst to her) Aoi Hikarizaka comes weeks later, when Aoi forces her to confront Brunhild. Yuzuki discovers shortly after a close battle that Brunhild was her own Witch form, yielding "her own" Grief Seed. Kyubey warns that it holds the potential to make her an Angel, but she largely disregards his warning due to his past breaches of trust, instead keeping the Grief Seed for herself. Aoi's identity remains unknown to Yuzuki. Her occasional meetings with Yuuto Takehiko culminate in a warning from him that her life was in danger, citing a prior incident where Yuzuki was attacked by a monster at the art museum. Yuuto claims that he was hired by a mutual friend to look after Yuzuki, though she disbelieves this statement due to having no friends that would fit the bill. He refuses to share any specifics on the matter, frustrating Yuzuki and cutting their interaction short. Unfortunately, there comes a time a month later when she can no longer hide her misgivings about her relationship with Emiri, not least of which being her straight orientation. The two of them break off their romance one night in front of their apartment. The future of their friendship distresses Yuzuki greatly, to the point of almost filling her Soul Gem. This is the start of a large battery of troubles for Yuzuki. On an attempted Witch hunt, she is interrupted by the Yakuza girl from Tokyo, Mai Ishimi. Yuzuki very narrowly wins this confrontation by suffocating Mai in a vacuum created by one of her shields, taking Mai's Soul Gem to negate her threat without killing her. Yuuto also makes his move, informing Yuzuki that the reason for his surveillance is to protect her from forces in the Afterlife wishing to harm her in order to hurt Toi, who he says has started a coup in the Afterlife. Hungering for progress, Aoi calls her out to Cherry Blossom Cemetery for a meeting, in which she reveals the source of her anger: an incident during Walpurgis Night where Yuzuki pulled her from the wreckage of her home. The confrontation ended without bloodshed, but Yuzuki becomes very preoccupied wondering about Aoi's motivations. At about this time, Yuzuki discovers that Ikana will eventually overtake her personality, and is inspired for the first time to begin actively suppressing her. Though dealing with multiple issues of her own, Yuzuki is adamant about aiding Yui when Alice falls into danger. She requests entry into the Dreamscape, despite Yui's objections. Relationships Emiri Kanashimi Probably the most important person in her life, Yuzuki met Emiri at a very early age. Being somewhat socially inept and not as close to her parents as she'd like following their divorce, Yuzuki often relies on Emiri as virtually her sole source of friendship and support. This was particularly so following the death of Toi, who was her only other such person. Thus, it was particularly fortunate when Emiri came to attend Mitakihara Central High with her, as she had nary a friend of her own in the class. She frequently worried that Emiri would drift away from her, due to the large volume of friends she was able to make, but luckily for Yuzuki this was not the case. Once in college, Emiri reveals that her feelings towards Yuzuki were in fact romantic in nature. Despite a valiant effort on Yuzuki's part, she was unable to return Emiri's feelings as such, and they are currently apart. Alice Rinju Previously her closest friend outside of Emiri, the recent marriage of her father to Alice's mother has made them stepsisters. Though nearly a year of cohabitation has strengthened their bond, Yuzuki still feels that she is not as close to Alice as she ought to be, usually blaming her own withdrawn nature for her perceived 'failure' to be close to Alice. Though she understands Alice's situation to a degree, she feels unable to come up with the right way to help her, and this is a frequent source of anxiety for her. Shizuko Kamitsuki Having asked for swordsmanship lessons four years ago, Yuzuki trained extensively in the Kamitsuki Style with Shizuko. The two have established an odd sort of reciprocal relationship, Shizuko teaching Yuzuki about swordsmanship and Yuzuki often guiding Shizuko's interest in video games. Abilities Upon transformation, Yuzuki, dons a black, hooded trenchcoat and dark blue chestplate with matching armor along her arms and legs. The armor as well as the trenchcoat have small blue flames decorating along the edges. The most important part of her costume is the addition of a mask. The mask is a plain, metallic grey with tinted lenses for eyes, focused to match her prescription since she cannot wear her glasses simultaneously. The mask has a blue scribble on it across the face but its meaning is unclear. The mask magically conceals Yuzuki's voice, making it sound distorted. Yuzuki's Magi outfit has pants as opposed to the whimsical skirt seen in many Puella outfits, making a point about her masculinity. With the use of pants, a hooded trenchcoat, and a mask, her identity as well as her gender are concealed. Yuzuki's core powers revolve around force fields. She initially did not carry any weapons, having to rely solely on her powers until Shizuko gifted her a sword. Her fields are very strong, and also air-tight if made into a box or bubble. She has taken advantage of the latter property to create air pressure "grenades." Her force fields can be telekinetically manipulated to pick up objects (or herself), though they cannot travel very quickly. She is also able to summon a ring of floating shields to hover around her, a collection of physical objects that range from metal, medieval shields to modern riot barriers. The shields also are capable of inflating airbags to stop Yuzuki from slamming into the insides should she be thrown into them. When Ikana is the apparent personality, her Puella Magi form functions very differently. Ikana has none of the defensive abilities Yuzuki has, and most of the armor is shifted away from areas of protection to her forearms to create weapons. The left arm's gun functions as a hand cannon for bullet-like projectiles, while the right arm's is capable of creating a large plume of blue fire. Witch Form Yuzuki's Witch form is Brunhild. Like Yuzuki herself, Brunhild is also of a dual nature, being able to switch between physical forms and barriers at will. At rest, Brunhild takes the form of an icy spider with frothing eyes. Her analogous "Ikana" form is a fiery snake. Both forms mostly attack physically, from what has been seen. The spider demonstrated the ability to regurgitate much of its acidic insides in an attempt to engulf targets. The barrier shifts to match, being a complicated matrix of ice tunnels in the spider form and a system of metal catwalks over a pit of fire in the snake. Brunhild does not seem to have any minions. Trivia *Yuzuki is left-handed. *Her birthday is November 11th, 1995. *She maintains a well-hidden interest in dating sims and (occasionally) eroge. *Though not very "popular," she maintained her position as class rep for all three years of high school, for being not too harsh with offenses and generally being typecasted for the role. Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Puella Magi Category:Main Characters